Bleeding from cut or nicked animal tissue is common in various minor medical or veterinary procedures as well as everyday life. Veterinary examples include trimming nails, beaks, wings, tails, ears, and so forth. Human tissue examples include shaving nicks, kitchen mishaps, and dermatological procedures. Styptic or hemostatic materials may be applied to these biological tissues to aid in the control of bleeding.
Traditional styptic material is generally provided as a powder or a pencil. The powder is well known to be messy and cumbersome to apply. For example, veterinarians find it difficult to place and hold a messy powder into a cut nail or other tissue of a moving animal. The powders often simply fall away from the tissue once put into place. Styptic pencils are merely styptic powder compressed into a pencil or crayon shape. These are generally hard like a stone and must be scratched into a powder or applied with water for the active ingredients to engage into the tissue.
Styptic materials generally absorb water easily. Absorbing water, even from humid air, causes styptic powders to solidify into a solid or crumbling cake or rock. Similarly, absorbed water causes styptic pencils to deform, crumble, or both. Despite water having such a negative effect on the storage and use of styptic materials, instructions for styptic powders or pencils often suggest moistening the material prior to application in order to soften or disperse the ingredients into the tissue.
There is a long felt need to simplify the application of styptic agents and also to protect the styptic agents from absorbing water during use and storage. It is with respect to these considerations and others that the disclosure made herein is presented.